pilot

ALSO NOTED: Telemedicine system links India, Ethiopia;KY county lets EMTs send patient data wirelessly; and much more...

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:59:50 -0400

> Here's an interesting telehealth project; a new pilot has linked hospitals in rural Ethiopia with India's leading cardiac institute. Article

> Officials in Louisville-Jefferson County, KY have bought a $2.1 million electronic patient care recording system that allows its EMTs to capture patient info digitally and wirelessly transmit the data to hospitals. Article

> A California medical practice is rolling out an EMR system with help from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Article

> A California multi-site primary care and specialist network has set plans to offer patients a set of online administrative tools, including a PHR. Article

And Finally... Want to see what an EMR looked like circa 1961? Check this out. Video

HIMSS08: Kolodner expects increase in EMR use

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:59:56 -0500

Just in case you haven't had your fill, here's more optimism from the feds on HIT adoption. (As for me, it's getting a bit grating, as I don't see enough going on to actually make adoption happen.) At least in this case, the optimism is driven by the likelihood that hospitals will step up, which seems a bit more realistic.

In his HIMSS speech last week, Dr. Robert Kolodner, national coordinator of health information technology, said that he hopes that to see a 50 percent increase in the use of health information technology this year. He's also predicting that the Nationwide Health Information Network will become operational this year, and that EMR vendors will begin incorporating federal standards into their products. Dr. Kolodner contends that an increased use of EMRs will be driven partly by a growth in hospital donations of such software to physicians who practice at their facilities. Thanks to this and other trends, he says, by 2012 at the outside half of all doctors will use EMRs. My question is, how will everyone pay for this?

To get more of Kolodner's predictions:
- read this Government Health IT piece

Related Articles:
Groups say IT changes must be part of national reform. Article
CCHIT invites vendors to apply for EMR pilot. Article

SPOTLIGHT: MA officials fight to keep EMR lead

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:59:52 -0500

To date, Massachusetts has done well in the race to implement EMRs. However, it won't keep that lead if decision-makers don't quickly figure out how to foster and pay for EMR use, according to officials. The officials, who gathered last week to mull lessons learned from a pilot EMR project kicked off in 2004, are wondering how to proceed once the pilot's $50 million in funding runs out. Article

NY-area hospitals testing smart cards

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:01:37 -0400

Over next 18 to 24 months, a group of New York area hospitals will be pilot-testing smart cards that can carry the equivalent of 30 pages of medical records. The hospitals, which include Mount Sinai Medical Center, Jersey City Medical Center, Queens Hospital Center, Cabrini Medical Center and several others, plan to hand out 100,000 of the cards, that were developed by Siemens Medical Solutions. Siemens is actually subsidizing the initial round of cards, not to mention the hardware and software needed to manage them. Over time, however, Mount Sinai alone could need 350,000 cards--which list for roughly $8 each--to reach all of its patients. In other words, things could get expensive quickly for participating hospitals once the pilot is over.

The 64 KB cards can store lists of current medications and med allergies, test results, chronic conditions, previous physician, hospital or clinic visits, summary medical history and more. Under most circumstances, the card can only be read if a patient enters a PIN, though if a patient is unconscious hospital emergency departments will have a special reader available which can override the pin. The hospitals hope to use the cards to reduce medical errors, improve communication between patients and doctors and reduce claim denials through accurate documentation.

To find out more about the smart card pilot:
- read this article in The Philadelphia Inquirer

Related Articles:
"Smart" medical debit cards on the rise. Report
Smart card vendors pitch healthcare pilots. Report
Gates pitches smart card security benefits. Report

SPOTLIGHT: TN governor impatient with health IT

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:01:32 -0400

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) may chair the State Alliance for e-Health, but that doesn't mean he's cutting the industry pass. Bredesen is fed up with health IT's slow, gradual progress toward interoperability. He'd like to see people stop holding seminars and pilot testing, pick a focus area--say, e-prescribing--and knock it out of the park. (Bonus: Check out a podcast interview with Gov. Bredesen by insider health IT blogger Neil Versel.) Article

Firm offers mobile disease management platform

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:01:35 -0500

San Francisco-based mobile applications developer BeWell Mobile has partnered with Indian technology firm Wipro Technology to offer cellphone-based disease management services. The platform includes a provider interface allowing clinicians and other professional users to set up individual patient applications, and a separate patient interface integrating a diary, reminders and reports. BeWell is currently conducting an asthma management pilot with the San Mateo Medical Center and Clinics and a diabetes management pilot with Kaiser Permanent. As of June, San Mateo had seen no ER visits by teen asthma sufferers, as compared with the norm of 25 visits per 10,000 children.

These types of pilots are just the beginning. Over the next few quarters, expect to see not only disease management and EMR, but many other core HIT applications migrate to mobile platforms. After all, as we've previously noted here, physicians are eagerly embracing next-gen mobile technology, so it makes sense to empower them with sophisticated mobile apps.

Get more information on this technology:
- see BeWell's press release (.pdf)

Related Articles:
Vendor trials cellphone-based diabetes monitoring. Report
Remote monitoring can be hampered by IT, workflow issues. Editorial

Insurer launches e-prescribing pilot

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 19:01:38 -0500

Working with regional insurers, Nashville-based SilverScript Insurance plans to offer access to its iScribe e-prescribing software at no charge to 10,000 physicians. The program is being rolled out to physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Florida and Tennessee. Participants get no-cost access to both Web and PDA-based prescribing functions. Other providers can access the Web service for free, but must pay for the PDA software. The technology allows doctors to review patient drug histories, send prescriptions directly to pharmacies, respond to refill requests online and automate prescribing tasks. By creating the program, SilverScript, a subsidiary of pharmacy benefit manager Caremark Rx, hopes to encourage more of physicians to adopt e-prescribing technology.

In kicking off this program, SilverScript has become one of a growing number of insurers, government organizations and other stakeholders shining a spotlight on e-prescribing. The efforts have been fueled by the results of an Institute of Medicine study, which suggested that e-prescribing could dramatically reduce the number of annual preventable drug errors in the U.S. The IOM recommends that the industry shift to digital prescriptions by the year 2010.

For more background on the pilot:
- read this article from the San Antonio Business Journal
- check out Caremark's press release

ALSO: Albany's Capital District Physicians Health Plan, which is working with SilverScript on the pilot for its region, is offering physicians iScribe, a PDA, a WiFi router and technical assistance. Article